NO. 2149. JAPANESE MACROUROID FISHES— GILBERT AND HUBBS. 157 



pressed, the greatest width across the pectoral bases less than half 

 the depth of the trunk, the greatest width directly above the anus 

 little more than one-fourth the depth at the vertical through that 

 point; tail one-fifth as wide as deep at a distance behind the anus 

 equal to half length of head. 



Head soft and greatly enlarged; the sensory canals excessively 

 developed ; contours of the head evenly curved from the snout to the 

 dorsal fin, and from the snout to the mouth; snout exceedingly 

 massive, rounded, and produced, its preocular length 3.4, its preoral 

 length 2.3; tip of snout slightly below horizontal through middle of 

 eye; nostrils nearly round, small, the anterior about two-thirds the 

 size of the posterior, the diameter of nasal fossa 1.5 in eye, the inter- 

 space between nasal fossa and eye half the diameter of the fossa; 

 eye nearly round, on the vertical passing through the anterior third 

 of head, the distance from its lower margin to front of mouth equal 

 to preocular length of snout; eye 9.5 in head, 6.25 in the highly convex 

 interorbital space, but only 4 times in the straight distance from eye 

 to eye; opercle placed high, very short, its length 4.5 in postorbital 

 length of head, an even rounded portion of the interopercle visible 

 behind the margin of the preopercle, the width of the exposed por- 

 tion one-fourth length of eye; mouth U-shaped, wholly inferior, the 

 front of premaxillaries slightly behind posterior margin of eye; 

 maxillary as long as the snout, its tip acuminate; teeth equal, all 

 minute, the premaxillary band widest at the end of its anterior third ; 

 mandibular band much narrower; no barbel; seven branchiostegal 

 rays, the lower flexible; gill openings not extending forward to tip 

 of maxillaries, the membranes narrowly joined to the isthmus, with 

 a moderate free fold ; gill-rakers 6+22 on the first arch, 0.4 as long 

 as eye, their inner edges rough, those on succeeding arches short and 

 compressed ; gill arches short, the first one not bound down by a fold 

 of membrane, the gill slit before it as long as the arch, and contained 

 4.5 times in length of head; fourth arch much shorter, with a double 

 series of filaments, followed by a slit only two-thirds the diameter of 

 the small eye; eight short pseudobranchial filaments, near a conic 

 pit, which is smaller than the similar pit found in Bathygadus; 

 sensory papillae of head well developed, located in small, oblong, 

 scaleless areas, which align themselves as shown in the figure. 



Scales small, in about 12 series from origin of dorsal fin to lateral 

 line ; scales of body poorly imbricate, arranged in definite series, and 

 hispid with small suberect spinules in irregular quincunx order, of 

 variable number, 7 to 17 on several scales counted ; scales of head non- 

 imbricate, large, without definite form or arrangement, hispid with 

 nearly erect spinules, which are in more or less definite quincunx 

 order, much shorter, more numerous, and more crowded than those 

 on the body. Eami of mandibles and the gular and branchiostegal 



